TRANSLATIONS
If Metoro was
thinking about Kuukuu, the yam planter, at
Aa1-11, then he presumably also thought about the rest
of the explorers sent out from Hiva. Furthermore,
he probably would not suddently at Aa1-11 get the idea
about Kuukuu, but already from reading the
beginning at Aa1-1 see the pattern of glyphs and from
that conclude that the text was about the young
'roosters' at the beginning of Rapa Nui history.
Metoro
began his reading of Tahua on side b and
certainly would have had enough time to think over what
'story' to start with on side a.
Maybe he
chose to begin with side b because he identified the
beginning of that side as describing celestial events.
Such should come before the human events.
What Metoro thought
and what the creator of the text thought must be kept
apart in our minds. The rongorongo texts clearly,
however, primarily refers to the Rapa Nui
environment (birds, fishes etc) and therefore the
thoughts of Metoro are worthy of investigation.
Could we possibly - with
the eyes of Metoro - identify the beginning of
side a as a description of events at the very beginning
of the story about the emissaries?
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Aa1-1 |
Aa1-2 |
Aa1-3 |
Aa1-4 |
| tagata
ui |
ki tona
marama |
e
tagata noho ana - i te ragi |
te
tagata - hakamaroa ana i te ragi |
Two persons running and
holding the sky in their uplifted left hand (Aa1-3--4) -
are they Hau Maka and Hua Tava? Is Hiva
depicted in Aa1-2? And who is representing the beginning
of it all in Aa1-1? Until now I have thought
about these glyphs as 'celestial' in character, with
Aa1-3 and Aa1-4 as perhaps describing the revolving
skies of the two half-years. Time is running. The sky
should be observed during the night and therefore a moon
in Aa1-2. Even Metoro may have thought along
these lines - he said tagata ui ki tona marama (a
man is looking at the light).
| Marama
1. Month, light. The ancient
names of the month were: Tua haro,
Tehetu'upú, Tarahao, Vaitu nui, Vaitu poru,
He Maro, He Anakena, Hora iti, Hora nui,
Tagaroa uri, Ko Ruti, Ko Koró. 2. Name
of an ancient tribe. Maramara, ember.
Vanaga.
1. Light, day, brightness,
to glimmer; month; intelligent, sensible;
no tera marama, monthly; marama roa,
a long term; horau marama no iti,
daybreak; hakamarama, school, to
glimmer; hare hakamarama, school,
classroom. In form conditionalis this word
seems derivative from lama, in which
the illuminating sense appears in its
signification of a torch...
Maramarama,
bright; manava maramarama,
intelligent. Churchill. |
Ui.
To ask.
Û'i. To look, to
look at (ki); e-û'i koe! look
out! Vanaga.
Ui. 1. Question,
to interrogate, to ask (ue).
Uiui,
to ask questions. 2. To spy, to inspect, to
look at, to perceive;
tagata ui,
visitor. Churchill. |
As tagata ui means
visitor according to Churchill, we may here have a possible reference to
the first visitors from Hiva. Another key word is
hakamaroa:
| Maroa
1. To stand up, to stand. 2.
Fathom (measure). See kumi.
Vanaga.
1. A fathom; maroa
hahaga, to measure. 2. Upright, stand
up, get up, stop, halt. Churchill. |
Hakamaroa should mean: to make measurements, or
to place (and fix) in an upright position (to
measure?). For me this sounds like using a gnomon.
Therefore I am suspicious about interpreting ana
as cave:
| Ana
1. Cave. 2. If. 3. Verbal
prefix: he-ra'e ana-unu au i te raau,
first I drank the medicine. Vanaga.
1. Cave, grotto, hole in
the rock. 2. In order that, if. 3. Particle
(na 5); garo atu ana,
formerly; mee koe ana te ariki, the
Lord be with thee. Churchill. |
Of course
caves may have been used as a convenient place from
which to observe stars, but I would rather place
myself on top of a hill or mountain with free sight
in all directions.
On Tahiti
ana could mean 'supporting pillar' (ref.
Makemson):
|
1 |
Ana-mua |
Antares |
entrance pillar |
6 |
Ana-tahua-taata-metua-te-tupu-mavae |
Arcturus |
a pillar to stand by |
|
2 |
Ana-muri |
Aldebaran |
rear pillar (at the foot of which was
the place for tattooing) |
7 |
Ana-tahua-vahine-o-toa-te-manava |
Procyon |
pillar for elocution |
|
3 |
Ana-roto |
Spica |
middle pillar |
8 |
Ana-varu |
Betelgeuse |
pillar to sit by |
|
4 |
Ana-tipu |
Dubhe |
upper-side-pillar (where the guards
stood) |
9 |
Ana-iva |
Phaet |
pillar of exit |
|
5 |
Ana-heu-heu-po |
Alphard |
the pillar where debates were held |
10 |
Ana-nia |
North Star |
pillar-to-fish-by |
The right
leg in Aa1-3--4 looks like a pillar and the sides of ragi
are defined by straight edges - not the
vault-of-heaven shape normally seen - possibly to
indicate the exact definitions delivered by the
lightrays and a gnomon. The triangular shapes may
allude to the 'trigonometry' needed for the
calculations:
Does the
word noho refers to 'sit' (Ana-varu,
Betelgeuze) or to 'stand' (Ana-tahua-taata-metua-te-tupu-mavae,
Arctururs)?
|
Noho
1. To sit, to stay, to
remain, to live (somewhere), to wait;
ka-noho, you stay! (i.e. 'good-bye',
said by the person leaving). 2.
Figuratively: he noho te eve, to be
calm, at peace; he noho te mana'u, to
concentrate on something, to fix one's
attention on; ku-noho á te mana'u o te
tagata ki ruga ki te aga, the man thinks
constantly of his work. Vanaga.
Seat, bench, dwelling,
marriage, position, posture, situation,
session, sojourn; to sit, to dwell, to
reside, to rest, to halt, to inhabit;
noho hahatu,
to sit cross-legged;
noho hakahaga,
apathy; noho
heenua, countryman;
noho kaiga,
native; noho
kenu, married;
noho ke noho ke,
to change place;
noho muri,
to stay behind;
noho noa,
invariable;
noho opata, to stand on a cliff;
noho pagaha,
badly placed;
noho pepe,
table; noho
tahaga, bachelor, unmarried;
noho vie,
married,
noho no, apathy, stay-at-home,
colonist, idler, inhabitant, inactive,
immobile, settler, lazy, loiterer.
Hakanoho,
to abolish, to rent, to lease, to enslave,
to dissuade, to exclude, to exempt, to
install, to substitute, hostage.
Hakanohohia,
stopped.
Nohoga, seat.
Nohoturi,
to kneel, genuflexion.
Nohovaega,
to preside. Churchill. |
In Churchills definition of ana
there is mentioned the possibility of understanding
the word as equivalent to the particle na:
(Particle (na 5); garo atu ana,
formerly; mee koe ana te ariki, the
Lord be with thee.) Checking up on that word I found
that on Samoa na is an 'intensive
postpositive particle'.
Possibly, therefore, noho ana
and hakamaroa ana means 'very' noho
respectively 'very' hakamaroa. That would be
a good translation, because what could be more firm
and stable (noho) than the pillars (maroa)
supporting the sky?
The word varu sounds like 8 and
tahua may explain the name of the Tahua
tablet. The word mavae sounds like ma-va'e
(with leg?). My guess is that both Betelgeuze
(number 8 on the Tahitian list) and Arcturus (number
6) may be referred to in Aa1-3--4.
|
Varu
1. To cut one's hair (te
puoko). 2. To shave. 3. To paint, to put
on make-up: he varu te kiea. Varu
a-roto, to have diarrhoea. Vanaga.
1. Eight. 2. To shave, to
remove the beard, to shear, to clip, to
rasp, a plane. Varuvaru, to peel, to
remove the bark, to plane, to scrape, to
shear. Churchill. |
|
Tahua
Sloping stone surface of ahu.
Vanaga.
OR. Tahua mimi, bladder. T. Board,
plank Fischer. |
|
Va'e,
vae, vaega
Va'e: Foot, leg; te va'e mata'u, te
va'e maúi, right foot, left foot.
Va'e ruga, va'e raro, quick and light,
without detour (lit.: foot up, foot down).
Ka-oho koe ki a nua era va'e ruga va'e
raro, ina ekó hipa-hipa, hurry straight
to your mother, do not make any detours.
Va'e pau, misshapen foot, clubfoot.
Vanaga.
Vae, to choose.
Vanaga.
Vaega, middle,
centre; i vaega o, in the middle of.
Vanaga.
1. Foot, paw, leg, limb;
vae no roto, drawers; karikari vae,
ankle. P Pau.: vaevae, foot, leg.
Mgv.: vaevae, id. Mq.: vae,
id. Ta.: vaevae, avae, id. 2.
Pupil. 3. To choose, elect, prefer, promote,
vote; vavae, to destine, to choose;
vaea (vae 2), pupil.
Vaeahatu (vae 1 - ahatu):
moe vaeahatu, to sleep sprawling with
legs extended. Vaega, center, middle,
within, half; o vaega, younger; ki
vaega, among, between, intermediate. P
Pau.: vaega, the middle. Mgv.:
vaega, center, middle. Mq.: vaena,
vavena, vaveha, id. Ta.:
vaehaa, half. Vaehakaroa (vae
1 - roa): moe vaehakaroa, to
sleep with legs stretched out. Vaehau
(vae 1 - hau 3), pantaloons,
trousers. Vaeherehere (vae 1 -
here 1), to attach by the paw.
Vaerere (vae 1 - rere 1),
to run. Churchill. |
|